Police, Parades, Equality and Justice
A modern police service
The face of policing in Northern Ireland has changed substantially over recent years. A new name, a new badge, a new uniform, new recruits and rigorous oversight arrangements have all helped transform policing.
The Good Friday Agreement 
established an Independent Commission on Policing under the leadership of former Governor of Hong Kong and Conservative MP, Chris Patten. The report, commonly referred to as the Patten Report, was published in September 1999 with a number of recommendations for change, the most important being the creation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and measures to gain community support and confidence.
These measures have included a Policing Board with unionist and nationalist participation and extensive powers to hold the police to account and an independent Oversight Commissioner to monitor implementation of the Patten Report. Under the system of 50:50 recruitment of catholic and non-catholics, by late 2006 one in five police officers were catholic, 20.05% of regular officers, compared to just 8.3% when the Patten report was published.
Twenty nine District Policing Partnerships have been established to give local people a real voice in policing and an important monitoring role in police performance.Together with the new Police Ombudsman, who deals with complaints about police conduct, the new arrangements mean Northern Ireland has one of the most rigorous systems of independent civilian oversight of policing in the world.Another new development is the deployment of officers to serve on UN policing missions in places such as Iraq, Kosovo and Bosnia.
Peace on parade
Parades continue to be a feature of life in many parts of Northern Ireland and at certain times of the year. While the vast majority of parades now pass off peacefully others can be contentious and are assessed by the Parades Commission, which was established by the government in 1998 to prevent disorder. The Commission, which has the power to approve or ban demonstrations, has achieved considerable success in promoting compromise, tolerance and greater understanding.
Equality and justice for all
Northern Ireland continues to move towards being a society based on clear principles of fairness, equality and justice for all. It now has anti-discrimination laws as advanced as anywhere in Europe.
These stringent laws extend beyond religious equality and include gender, race, disability, marital status as well as ethnic and other minority groups.
As well as a new Human Rights Commission and an Equality Commission a Commissioner for Children and Young People has been established reflecting government’s commitment to ensuring that children and young people enjoy a healthy childhood in an environment where their rights are upheld.
Criminal justice
Northern Ireland has one of the most forward looking criminal justice systems in Europe after committing to a radical modernisation programme. Putting human rights and equality at its core, Northern Ireland’s criminal justice system has innovative crime preventive packages, improved services and support for victims and witnesses, and a number of new, independent institutions including the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission, Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland and the Public Prosecution Service.
To complement the strong commitment of all the criminal justice agencies to the fundamental reform and improvement of the system, independent checks and balances, including a Justice Oversight Commissioner, who at the end of his three year appointment in June 2006, commended the transformation of the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice system.
